SHOCK AND 3-D AWE

A virtual battleship is helping the Pentagon make war better and cheaper

SEA CHANGE:The USS Dahlgren may not be real, but it makes experimentation safer and more feasible, since real battleships have more pressing matters to attend to.

NATHAN BURKE/U.S. NAVY

LATE LAST August, just 50 miles south of Washington, D.C., a series of explosions rocked the normally placid Potomac River. The blasts came from artillery belonging to the USS Dahlgren, which was testing a new targeting system. Using a drone to observe its marks, the targeting system automatically recalculated its aim and retrained the Dahlgren’s gunners. The following volley hit, clearly demonstrating the value of the targeting system. But perhaps more impressive was the USS Dahlgren itself, which, despite its name, isn’t a ship.

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ROUND 'EM UP: TRUMP'S BORDER WAR IS ABOUT TO GET UGLY
It was a 2017 moment of great joy, and then fear. Ammi Arevalo found out she was pregnant in early February, not long after President Donald Trump signed two executive orders ramping up enforcement of immigration law and deportations. Her first reaction was happiness, mixed with some low-level financial anxiety, but almost immediately a dark foreboding took over her thoughts. As an undocumented immigrant, Arevalo already dreads an early-morning knock on her door from immigration agents. Arevalo and eleven million like her are at the center of a long running fight that is sparking regular protests and threatening to go nuclear in the early days of the Trump presidency. Leading one side of the war are organizations advocating for undocumented immigrants and even teaching tactics to avoid and sub-vert immigration laws. They want people like Arevalo to live in the U.S. with no real legal distinction between them and American citizens. Leading the other side are the president, many politicians and sheriffs in Texas, and organizations pushing for tighter enforcement and millions of deportations.